On the last full day in Washington I took the younger kid to Orting, WA to check out the park on their main drag. It was a good early morning spot because it’s across the street from Legendary Donuts (and an ice cream shop for the afternoons), and I’m always down for a good donut + playground morning.
Once Frida finished three donut holes and I had dried everything off with a towel, we got to work. The Burke playground is predominantly targeted towards the 5-12 year old group, and doesn’t really have much for younger toddlers unless they are comfortable with steps and longer slides.
The playground is nicely accessible to adults, though, with a convenient central staircase with nothing to hit your head on. It makes it easy to follow a kid to the top where the slides are, and with no tube slides it’s an easy sell to scoot down a slide with a toddler in lap.
The park is very well shaded which was also a detriment on the morning I was there, as I could see it taking a very long time for it to dry off, something I imagine is an important consideration in the Pacific Northwest.
I think this park is pretty standard for the budget it was built it, with lots of slides and varied climbers. It could be improved with more ground level items like play panels, rockers, etc. As always, a loop of balance beams, monkey bars, stepping stones would add a bit more as otherwise this playground is fairly linear. The play area is sandwiched tightly between a parking lot and busy roads on two sides (one of them being a county road with only a low wall separating it from the playground). A 24 mile bike path cuts along the side of the playground from the Mt Rainier area towards downtown Puyallup.
The park area has a small bathroom building, a green space, and picnic areas. It’s very much a “small town square” situation.
Overall, I was happy with this park despite it being soaking wet, and would definitely come back.
I found this park to be a hard one to take good pictures of, mostly due to the lighting. Lots of dappled light made it difficult getting exposure correct, so it’s either too dark or too light, or just hard to see the shape of the playground amongst the busy background.